Creating an indigenous version of the Sea Guardian drone makes sense.
On the other hand buying the 30-40 million Predator drones do not make much sense.
- too expensive, almost costing as much as an regular fighter
- cannot be used in well defended airspaces, both China and Pakistan have
radars and SAM network. Once detected it is almost a sitting duck.
- only way to safeguard it is to fly it well behind the borders and then fire stand
off long range munitions to destroy targets. But this job can be done by manned
fighters also.
- probably the most viable deployment strategy is to use it against Maoists hiding
in the jungles etc or against terrorists in Kashmir. Since it will be operating in
our territory with no threat from AA guns or MANPADS. But India has long
desisted from using airpower against insurgent groups inside the country.
So paying so much for an drone whose operational role will be very limited does not make sense.
The Sea Guardian is in a different category with force multiplier capabilities. Scanning and searching the oceans for likely threats is a time and resource intensive activity. An unmanned platform with long endurance and good sensor systems can make the job easier. It can loiter for hours and track any suspicious boat and even fire an air to surface munition(I believe the Sea Guardian can carry light weapons) to sink the terrorist boat if needed. It can fly close to the Pakistan coast(out of range of coastal SAM batteries) and using synthetic aperture radars or obtuse angle cameras gather intelligence on their naval deployments.
Hence developing an indigenous version of the Sea Guardian is a good strategy.
